Unless arcane proves to still do far too strong dps, prolly roll fire, gem and reforge crit and not look back until some numbers are around to have a decent comparison..

This is actually what I was planning on. I have a feeling they will give up, make a quick fix to fire, and let us go about our merry way. Then again, I am an optimist.

I raid competitively and hold many top 50 ranks for heroic encounters currently, and I have no idea what I'm going to do in 5.2. I really don't want to look like a fool in the first raid, but then again, I'm not so much of a theory crafter that I care to make sense of the current mess that is mages. I guess I will reap what I sow, but hopefully this thread can give me some ideas to curb my lack of skill in the theory crafting department.

they are tweaking the numbers for now(nerf to arcane. well bit of both for qol sake) they could buff frostbolt/fireball a bit again imo >_>

but at the moment i will stay arcane, been on ptr last night (before the nerf) so will be excited to play around with new and improved less mana on 4stack AB

Can you detail exactly how you are doing your rotation? This is the whole point of the thread, so others can pick apart your play style and make suggestions or ask questions to help improve the community's play. Thanks!

GC just announce another change to arcane charge and they still haven't began tweaking damage.
All this change make stat scaling vary.

"OKAY GUYS, LET'S DROP INVO TO 0% MP5 AND NOT TELL PEOPLE ABOUT IT!"

"We're reverting the 100% MP5 reduction back to 50%, as well as making Invo work COMPLETELY different for Arcane by making Charges consumed by Evocation for more mana. In addition, before you get to test that, we're also nerfing Charges to 35%/100% in Damage bonus/Mana cost, respectively"

I feel like when a talent does something so radically different for one specc over the other two (especially for a PURE DPS class), the design philosophy is an absolute failure.

OT: There is no telling what our end result will be for Arcane. Both Frost and Fire are nearly 100% identical.

Seriously, the speccs are the exact same thing, with the small exception of Frost getting an extra procc and having more controlled proccs (e.g., freezing adds, Frozen Orb, and if you use Frost Bomb, Brain Freeze), and Fire having unpredictable proccs and needing to use Inferno Blast.

There really is no telling what Arcane will end up when they change it every other day.

---------- Post added 2013-02-12 at 03:53 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Soulstrike

everything is fine except invocation atm

Denial sounds nice; I wish I could try it.

RoP is a huge issue as it's nearly worthless to pick up. Invo is VASTLY superior to it (for Fire/Frost), and at this point, IW may even be worth it for Arcane if you can't stand Rune (which many of you, including myself, can't). You lose 10% passive MP5 and 9% damage, but you AREN'T restricted to a small circle, you don't ever have to recast it, and if you can sacrifice a bit of MP5, you can use IW's active to burst some huge damage out (assuming there's an AoE effect in place).

Arcane is still unpredictable as hell, Frost is still crap. NOTHING is "fine" really.

invo damage being changed= less attraction to rop thats whats wrong with invo nothing wrong with rop just saying >_>

also denial??? uhhhh what???

---------- Post added 2013-02-13 at 01:12 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Nathyiel

GC just announce another change to arcane charge and they still haven't began tweaking damage.
All this change make stat scaling vary.

ikr lol good thing i have 2stack worth of mastery/haste gem ready :P

---------- Post added 2013-02-13 at 01:16 AM ----------

Originally Posted by cockaroo

Can you detail exactly how you are doing your rotation? This is the whole point of the thread, so others can pick apart your play style and make suggestions or ask questions to help improve the community's play. Thanks!

hmm?? this is before they changed the damage/mana cost down to 35%/150%

its just same old same old rotation AB until you get 4stacks use AM if you have any proc use AB until 80% mana then reset with Abarr. this 4stack mechanic seems more dynamic than the 6stack since we are going to be using ABarr more often (this is ROp mastery build btw sorry to mention)

will have some dummy testing with the new changes hopefully the 4stack AB is more forgiving than before so we can manage our mana to maximize our dps rather than scorch weaving/invocation play style zzzzz

Seriously, the speccs are the exact same thing, with the small exception of Frost getting an extra procc and having more controlled proccs (e.g., freezing adds, Frozen Orb, and if you use Frost Bomb, Brain Freeze), and Fire having unpredictable proccs and needing to use Inferno Blast.

Welcome to world of rogues :-) We have the exact same thing, but with all 3 specs, and blizz isn't going to do anything with it in near future.
/OT

I'm personally (on my mage) going to stay fire, I like the rotation, the crits and huge combustions. And if there are 2 more targets? Awww yeeaa Will probably go with rune of power, although I will probably prefer invocation on some heavy-movement fights. I guess that blizz intentions are to balance these 3 talents about: low-movement fights (rune of power), heavy-movement fights (invocation) and high-incoming-damage fights (shield) and I *mostly* agree with this.

uhhh i did mention number tweaking??? what more is there to "fix" besides invocation?? please do tell

Rune of Power, Invocation as it is completely demolishes it.

Personally I plan to declare to my guild Arcane is no longer the must have spec, wave all these changes at them to prove it and re-spec and re-gem and reforge for Fire and pray Arcane doesn't end up as top dog again.

@Dragon (and some other) on class rotation.
This rotation is the basic standard for near every class. Some are more complex than other.
Before, it was a rotational game-play. Now, it's a priority game-play.
Arcane spec is one of the spec that differ the most from the standard.
Fire spec is one of the spec the differ the less.
Frost spec is in the middle with a debuff and a pet to manage.

There's 2 standard : priority and resource management. They build all class around this with more or less difference, etc.

uhhh i did mention number tweaking??? what more is there to "fix" besides invocation?? please do tell

Arcane, Frost, RoP, IW? Are these things really as fine as you think?

---------- Post added 2013-02-12 at 10:58 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Nathyiel

@Dragon (and some other) on class rotation.
This rotation is the basic standard for near every class. Some are more complex than other.
Before, it was a rotational game-play. Now, it's a priority game-play.
Arcane spec is one of the spec that differ the most from the standard.
Fire spec is one of the spec the differ the less.
Frost spec is in the middle with a debuff and a pet to manage.

There's 2 standard : priority and resource management. They build all class around this with more or less difference, etc.

Everything is just a variation around this.
Some don't have dot, or plenty. Other have less cooldown or more proc to watch. Default spell can be cast a lot or not so much.
It's just the model that blizzard use actually.

Ok, it's more for caster than melee. But if you see White strike as a "default spell", the rest is more a "when it's up".